The sun rose, presumably, as it was often difficult to tell in Kirigakure given how thick the morning fog could be. Even before the diffuse light grew strong enough to properly prepare for a new day the docks were bustling with activity. Anchors were pulled, moorings untethered, nets shaken loose of debris- the news on everyone’s lips spread faster than a crowd of gulls over a freshly spilled dumpster.
The Water Lord had lifted the blockade!
For...some reason! Nobody knew why, and nobody in positions of authority was telling why- because they didn’t honestly know either.
“Lord Shuzamaru said the talks would be...momentarily postponed.” Minami Nijo, Kirigakure’s premier diplomat, looked as if hadn’t slept in days. He rubbed his sagging eyes and squinted at the scroll between his fingertips in between taking swigs from a nearby gourd. His tall, slim and prim appearance hadn’t looked so disheveled and unkempt since the war, though as a total professional he kept himself stimulated and awake enough to speak with only a slight waver in his voice. “I’ve never been in a negotiation like that. It was as if-”
“He was wasting our time on purpose.” The Juudaime Mizukage herself, Nemoha Maya, looked nearly exactly the opposite of Nijo. Where he was worn down she was brimming with an obvious rage (as the several still smoking but stubbed out cigar butts nearby could attest to). She flicked her lighter in agitation as she stared out the sea facing window of Nijo’s office. “Five solid days of ‘negotiations’ after blockading our village with his damn fleet, and now he ‘needs time to consider the options’? Bullshit. We should have arrested and publicly executed his envoy on the spot.”
“Ma’am!” A fierce pounding came from behind Nijo’s doors, prompting both shinobi to snap out of their distant thoughts. “Commodore Kakatsyuki Endo is here to see you! He says it’s important.”
A long, deathly silence filled the room. Maya set her cigar down without lighting it, and leaned in close to Nijo. “Who?”
“He’s the head of the Research Department.” Maya glared down at her chief diplomat, who seemed to be struggling to come up with the right words. “He’s...you know that guy who got all those harassment complaints-”
“That guy?” Her upper lip curled in displeasure. “He still has a job?”
“He’s really smart. And it’d cost more to replace him than to keep him around. And he’s popular. Uh, allegedly.”
A roar ripped from Maya’s throat. “Send him in!”
Two uniformed shinobi pulled open the doors, and in walked a rather short looking man in a pristine white lab coat. That was just about the only thing about him that looked pristine, as a greasy sheen coated his face. Since the end of the blockade everyone had been pulling all-nighters.
“Mizukage-sama!” He took such a deep bow that the flaps of his long coat almost flipped over his head. “I bring you important news!”
“You’re too late.” Maya leaned away from the diplomat’s desk and returned to the window. “The Water Lord took off already. Get your ship in order, we’re going to immediately start searching the bay for mines before he changes his mind and comes back.”
“Ah, yes, well, my ship...never mind, that’s not important.” Endo struggled to contain himself as he began to slur words together. “I know what the Water Lord was trying to do! Why he started the blockade, and why he just took off!” Maya didn’t raise an eyebrow, but Nijo rose to his feet immediately. “Well, you see, my team and I discovered- after I decrypted some of the Water Lord’s private communications- really it was mostly me, can’t trust anyone else-”
“Out with it, Commodore.” Maya didn’t turn from the window but the tone in her voice made it clear her patience that morning was razor thin.
Endo more than obliged. “The Water Lord didn’t care about blockading us in. He was using it as cover to install...devices in our territory. They’re bombs of some sort. He intended to hold the village hostage.”
“And?” The tone of Maya’s voice didn’t soften at all. “You already disarmed them, then? Mines aren’t brain surgery, we could send genin out to do that. You didn’t come to my office-”
“-it’s my office, though-”
“-just to tell me there’s some trash that needs cleaning up, did you?”
“Ah! No, well, uh, yes.” Endo held up two gloved hands. “They aren’t just mines, it’s a bit more...complicated. The method to disarm them, I acquired it by raiding one of the Water Lord’s...I’ll give my report later, it’s a long one. That’s not why I’m here.” He shook his head and sighed, pretending to look devastated. “One of our own men, by the name of Gushiken Ren...he stole the device I needed to disarm the bombs! He's been missing ever since! We’ve been betrayed from the inside!”
Now Maya was paying attention. She spun around and tore a radio from her pocket, flicking it on in preparation to bark something severe over the airwaves. “And you came here first instead of bringing him in?”
“He’s- he didn’t show up at any clinics! I would have known!” Endo pleaded, and squeezed his hands into fists. “I’m not- my team is the best in Kirigakure, but we aren’t hunters. This is extremely delicate, if Ren escapes-”
“I get it, stop talking.” Maya inhaled deeply. “I know Gushiken Ren. The Jellyfish, huh? The one involved in that Nishimura fiasco?” Endo seemed to flinch, but if Maya noticed she didn’t seem to care. “How long has he been missing?”
“Ah, uh, depending if you want to count from-” Maya snapped and pointed at Endo, and he dropped all pretense immediately. “Thirty....no, twenty hours.”
Maya looked at the exhausted Nijo and gave him a worrying smile. “So all we need is this detonator thing back, right? We’ll find him before lunch, then.”
-
While the Kirigakure authorities scrambled to make sense of the rapidly developing situation, deep in Kirigakure’s residential district, some people were just waking up to a new reality. “You’re a nasty, selfish little idiot, you know that?”
Esumi, a kunoichi from the Village Hidden in the Mist, didn’t make eye contact with her patient. Her white hair was slick against her face, dark skin glistening with a hot sweat. Her apartment was a mess – even before Gushiken Ren had stumbled in – but now there was a sticky, slimy blood trail between the window and her couch. Mumbling obscenities she tore open a tincture’s plastic container and poured it freely onto his gaping stab wound. When he let out a pained, shallow groan, her face split into a smile.
“Serves you right, ingrate. A dozen clinics between the coast and here and you stumble into my private domicile for, what, free health care?” She flicked the empty bottle at his face, which bounced off with a soft thump. “If you get injured on the job they treat you for free, idiot. Read your contract.”
“Sorry, Essy.” Ren groaned. He did his best to smile, but it came off as more of a grimace. “I was in a daze, I just walked in without thinking.”
She flourished her hand out to the window and snapped. "Don't 'Essy' me. You broke my window and bled all over my place, again, Ren. I told you, this needs to stop. At least when an actual jellyfish washes up on shore it doesn’t knock over all my potted plants too.”
Defeated, she slumped down onto her heels in a legs-folded sitting position, and held her hand out over the wound. There was a soft rush of energy and she placed her palm gently over the wound. She flinched as she felt the extent of the damage, but quickly covered it up with a sneer.
Chiyute no Jutsu - Healing Hands Technique (Itashite)
Requirements: Control 8, Power 8, Reserves 6
Description: A ball of specialized healing chakra is formed in one palm, often characterized by a green glow. When directed into another body, this healing chakra is capable of repairing damage to tissue. Healing chakra may be redirected into the user's own body, but regardless of who the patient is, healing takes at least one post to complete. The healing which occurs is a rapid form of regeneration- thus, the medic can speed up the rate a body heals, but cannot heal injuries that a body wouldn’t otherwise be able to (such as regenerating a severed limb).
Base Effect: The medic can heal superficial cuts, first degree burns, hairline fractures, and damage from light fevers and coughs.
Stage Four: The medic can heal gashes, second degree burns, sprains, partial fractures and torn tendons.
“So what was it this time, huh?”
“The Flame.”
For a moment, her healing art sputtered – before coming back with a soft roar, like water crashing against the coast. She ran her free hand through her hair. “Oh, you...haven’t used that excuse before. Didn't have time to think up a better story?”
He leaned his head back in pain and tried to focus on her ceiling. The fan was moving slowly. “It bad bad?”
“Yeah, Ren, it’s bad bad. You really need to go to a proper hospital.”
“You can’t just like...squeeze a bit more juice out of your magic hands?”
“Do you understand how difficult healing jutsu is? There’s a few dozen medics in Kirigakure at my level and maybe three better than me, and none of ‘em can just patch up a wound this bad. All you dumb brute types seem to think we can just sew you back up and send you off with a slap on the bottom -” She lost her trail of thought, the nostrils on her short, wide nose flaring. Like Ren, she was starting to show the wear of age, but something about this entire scenario was reminding her so deeply of genin days that it felt like a joke. “Anyway, I’ll radio someone to come get you. You really shouldn’t be walking like this.”
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He jerked, snatching out a hand to grab her wrist. Despite his weakness, his grip felt strong enough to bruise her arm. A flit of panic played through her chest as she realized she couldn’t just wiggle free – the difference in strength was absolute. However, he quickly relaxed his grip. “You know Endo? The, the science guy, I think. I’ve never met him before yesterday. Or...two days ago. I don't know how long it has been” Ren closed his eyes as if just remembering the man caused him pain. “I got assigned a job under his crew, he got his ship past the blockade to investigate some Water Lord...thing, I dunno. It was a setup. Endo tried to get me killed, blow me up, something. Then when shit went south with the Flame, he told me to get this away from him -”
Ren reached into his hip holster and produced the small cylindrical device.
“A remote of some kind. Like a detonator for demolitions. I should just smash it, right? What the hell would Endo want it for?”
“But...wasn’t a lot of time to think. Now this thing is the only evidence left. Don’t know what I should do with it.”
Esumi blew her hair out of her face and went back to working her magic on Ren’s puncture wound. “You really think Kakatsyuki Endo is trying to get you killed? Can you prove it?”
“Mm, yeah. Whole situation was weird. Only wanted me and him on site, set me up with explosives, tried to catch me in the blast. Then the Flame showed up and we ended up having to work together, I guess. But now I think-” Whatever Ren thought came to a pause, as a burst of static filled the air around them.
Kirigakure, among the world’s ninja villages, was particularly rural and somewhat behind on technological advancements. Grainy loudspeakers positioned at distant intersections would sometimes sound off distorted sirens when typhoons or other alerts needed to be broadcast to the civilian population, and they were only very rarely used for any kind of public announcements. When the static-filled and choppy robotic voice broke out over the neighborhoods then, everyone listened.
“All units, chuunin sailor Gushiken Ren has been declared missing – capture dead or alive, by issue of the Mizukage. This message repeats. All units...”
Esumi flinched. “Fuck, Ren. Why can’t you just stay out of trouble?”
She glanced over to her side, where there were the bandages and opened packages of her impromptu clinic, and her hunting mask beside. It was MLEA issued. Esumi’s job was to capture, or kill, exactly the type of person Gushiken Ren was now categorized as.
“Ah...well. Can’t blame you if you turn me in, now. Rules is rules, and I’ve always believed in the bloody Mist.” As usual Ren’s insincerity bled through in his words, but there was a tinge of compassion in his voice as well, as if he knew exactly how unfair it was for him to ask for more.
“Idiot.” Esumi balled her fist and thumped it into his soft and bruised hip. He let out a groan and choked on his words. “That old school bloody Mist idiocy will get you killed one day.”
Ren was tracing his fingers over his newly patched skin. It was tender, newly-grafted and grown by virtue of Esumi’s technique...and felt like it might rip back open any second. He sighed and resigned himself.
“You can’t break the rules, Esumi. You swore an oath.”
“You did too, moron.”
“Yeah.” Ren stared up at the ceiling. “You got a future though, that's the difference.”
She stood up and pulled her mask over her face. Then, she took her transmitter radio and dropped it to the ground. “Oops, left my radio at home, didn’t hear anything. Besides...I got my own self-destructive old-school credo to protect.”
Ren was hoisted up to a stand by her outstretched arm, and she nodded over at his large cleaver that was laying on the ground. “Now do me a favor and don’t slow me down. Let’s get you out of here until I can figure out what’s going on.”
-
The streets of Kirigakure began to teem with anxious energy. The morning gossip took on its own life as the rumors began to take flight.
“I heard he was responsible for that mess in Kanitoshi where some shinobi with lightning ninjutsu burned down that factory making kids toys. Who else could have done it but him? Nobody else in Kirigakure uses raiton!”
“My cousin says he sank the Explorer! None of those sailors on board have been seen since he came back!”
“I got my fortune told from that shrine maiden working behind the duck kebab place- she says he made a deal with the devil for power!”
“Is he actually this ugly?” Turning the rough copy around in his flippers, the wide-set penguin Yonmaru clicked his beak in disapproval at the image in front of him. “Looks like he's growing sea urchins on his face.”
“No, that’s him from a generation ago.” Perched above the irate penguin was a small furry creature cleaning its whiskers. “They shaded in some facial hair on his chuunin promotion picture with a pen, I think. Didn’t have a more recent photo. Very sad, to deface the image of a Giant like that-”
“Don’t you start up.” Yonmaru grumbled and swung the rolled up paper like a newspaper at the otter as if it were a misbehaving pup. “It’s too early to listen to your kind yak on and on like that. 'Sacred Texts' this and 'Divine Giants' that. What a headache. Oy! Waiter!” A nervous looking man scooted up to the table, where Yonmaru’s giant form sat and took up two entire seats. “Get me another cup of coffee! And another raw fish! Can’t believe those awful turtles got to patrol the bay instead of getting saddled with playing hide and seek...oh, and more cream next time!”
The unhappy talking penguin would have been quite a site on any other day. Talking animals, even at the hub of Water Country shinobi life like Kirigakure, were a rare occurrence. The summon families - the penguins, otters, and sea turtles - often required steep prices for their assistance. But thankfully there was far too many other things going on for intelligent beasts to be high on people’s watchlist. On that morning the citizens of Kirigakure woke up to both the news of the broken blockade, and a veritable plague of nosy ninja on every corner. Otters leapt from rooftop to rooftop furiously exchanging messages, roving groups of genin looking for a quick boost to their resume peaked under every dumpster lid, and as the daylight grew so did the potency of every whisper and theory.
“Can’t believe they want him alive- he must be really important!”
“Her mother can’t get in touch with the MLEA about where she is, do you think this Jellyfish guy might have-”
“I bet he’s just drunk under a gutter somewhere with a wicked hangover. All this fuss over some sailor!”
The narrow alleyway offered little respite from the morning’s humidity. Depite sitting in the shadows cast from the buildings on either side, steam and heat seemed to be trapped inside like a small hot box. Ren’s massive sword on his back scraped with a nasty sound as he rested against one wall and lifted his leg to put pressure on the other. He stretched, one hand on his soft spot on his torso, and grunted.
“Practically good as new.”
Esumi lightly rapped the spot with a roll of her knuckles – and even through his armored vest, he groaned and found the words stuck in his throat. “It’ll tear open again.”
She shook her head, face impossible to read behind her white mask. The Kirigakure symbol was emblazed on her forehead, and the pattern on the face said something about her being a middling-rank or something or an other. Ren wasn’t sure – all that hunter-ninja stuff was hush-hush spooky shit, and he preferred things more cut and dry. Or, if he was being honest with himself, he just wasn’t ever well behaved enough to even be considered for promotions like that. Some fish swam against the current. The Jellyfish was more of a drifter.
“I don’t think I’m getting out of the village.” Ren managed to huff out between breaths. “But if I can get to Maya first, maybe I’ll have time to tell my side...”
He sighed and shook his head. How many times over the last two decades had he openly lied to authority – Maya herself, even – just to get out of a tiny scrape? His word was as good as nothing, especially in a situation like this. When it was him versus the esteemed genius Endo, regardless of his nasty reputation, it wouldn’t even be a contest. It made sense why the egotistical Endo had sought out Ren specifically. When you needed a scapegoat, who worked better than a man everyone already knew was a good fo nothing? He flexed his fist and gently pressed it into his wound, as if he was trying to grind out all the pain.
“I’m not going to let them get you.” Esumi gestured for them to stop as she glanced upwards at the rooftop. “At least, not until you’ve had a fair chance to share your side. I can do that much for you at least. Then we're even.”
Her voice was uncharacteristically soft. Ren flashed his shark-toothed smile at her and gave her a thumbs-up. “You don’t need to get your name stained with mine, Esumi. You’ve already done enough. If I can just get a clear path to the Kage’s office...”
She shushed him and pressed her hand into his face to smother out any more words. A few heartbeats later, three shinobi kicked off the overhead rooftop and sprung to the next one.
“Let’s move.” She glanced down at the hunched Ren, and shook her head. “Or, uh, move as well as you can.”
Ren held onto the hilt of his sword on his back to keep it from banging against the alleyway, and they sank deeper into Kirigakure’s heart. The closer they drew to where Kirigakure’s powers that be lay, the more dense the shinobi patrols became. It seemed like a matter of time before they got caught.
-
Somewhere closer to the coast, a long line of smaller homes sat facing the ocean, most occupied by graying retirees. Sitting on his porch overlooking the bay, a cranky, scarred old man fiddled and cursed at a bulky radio that might have been as ancient as himself. “Ma. MA!” He turned and yelled back into the house before someone yelled back ‘WHAT!’, to which he replied “Never mind. I fixed it.”
After a few percussive taps the grainy sound coming from the device finally became legible. The old man stroked his beard and listened intently before turning and yelling again. “Ma! Get out here and listen to this! They’re saying some whack job is loose in the village...” He trailed off as the radio mentioned the name of said whack job, prompting the voice inside the house to scream back again with a ‘WHAT?’. There wasn’t any sassy response this time, though. Instead the man’s jaw dropped, and he got out of his chair so fast it clattered to the ground.
An old woman in the house lifted her head up out of a cupboard as her husband stormed in. “Good lord, what is the matter with you? A bee get in your pipe again?”
“It’s him, it’s- where’s the damn phone? Does it even still work? Newfangled technology-” The man yanked the device so hard off the wall it almost came loose, and punched some of the buttons. “I can’t believe this, after all these years, I knew it, I knew it-”
A young but hard to hear voice picked up on the other end. “Operator, how can we help-”
“Get me the health department!” The old man tapped his foot rapidly, far more rapidly than one might have expected given his advanced age. Another voice picked up on the line after some time. “You’ve reached the Kirigakure Office of Child and Family Health, what can I do for-”
“Did you hear? Are you listening to all this ruckus?” The old man was holding onto the phone receiver so hard it was cracking and spoke with such volume the person on the other end had to hold the phone away from their ear. “That rat bastard is a wanted man! A criminal!”
“Dad? You’re not supposed to use this line for- who are you even talking about?”
“Gushiken Ren!”
There was a long silence, apart from the creaking of the phone’s poor plastic.
“Dad, that was a long time ago, we talked about this-”
“I can forgive a kid for making a mistake. Adults don’t get that excuse!”
“He’s dangerous, Dad. You’ve been retired for years-”
“I still train every day! Don’t put me in diapers just yet, kid!”
“It’s not worth it!”
“Yeah, well.” The man looked over to his wife, who gave him a hard scowl and then a thumbs up. “That son of a bitch ruined your life. I can’t get your leg back, but now I can finally even the score.”
“No, Dad, let’s talk about-” At that point, either by accident or on purpose, there was a loud crack and then the line went dead. On the other end was a young man behind a desk rubbing his forehead. He took in a few deep breaths, and massaged the joint where his knee met his prosthetic. Then he picked the phone back up and made a phone call.
“Hello? Yes, I need to talk to the MLEA. I know they’re busy but- this is the son of Keigo Dazai. Yes, that Dazai. Trust me, you want to make time for this.”